Featured stories
Inga Peterson
Inga Peterson (pictured center, pink hat) is a natural resource management major who found her passion at UAF. She applied for university funding through URSA to pay for her research that diagnoses peony health using color analysis and nutrient data. She's gaining hands-on soil experience and developing solutions for peony growers, which means she is contributing directly to her dream industry.
Pirada Anderson
Pirada was a Summer 2025 Student Project Award Recipient through UAF's URSA grant program. Her project examines the effects of rising temperatures on Trichobilharzia alaskensis, a parasite that causes swimmer's itch.
Soka Vanegas-Farrara
Being financially independent has meant that it's all been on Soka's shoulders — to not only get to graduation day, but to support herself along the way, working multiple jobs. Schoolwork was sometimes a challenge, but not impossible.
Jonas Fields
Following a fatal landslide outside of Wrangell, Alaska, in 2023, Jonas initiated a project to identify any trends, potential warning signs, and/or pre-existing symptoms that would indicate unstable slopes in the future.
Daniela Barrera Guevara
Dani is a geoscience major at UAF, as well as a recipient of a Spring 2025 URSA Student Project Award. The completed work of Dani's semester-long project consisted of geological and anatomical research, writing of the article, creation of figures, visualization and elaboration of rigorous scientific illustrations, and reference compilation.
Queenie Turner: Microplastic concentrations in bowhead whales
July 21, 2026
Queenie is a 2024-2025 Climate Change Project Award Recipient. My URSA project is about microplastics (MP) in bowhead whales that were subsistence harvested from Utqiagvik, Alaska in the fall of 2022-2024. I am comparing MP concentrations (MP/g) from a subset of tissues of stomach contents, colon contents, and muscle. Stomach content MP concentrations can help estimate exposure of whales via their food. Colon contents can inform how much of the MP particles are excreted and are also useful to compare exposures of other large and endangered whale species where other tissues are not available. Finally, MP can translocate from the gut to body tissues. Muscle MP can be reliably detected and provide an estimate of potential body burden, or the total amount of MP accumulated within an organism's body. Preliminary results show that MP concentrations in bowhead whale tissues are among the highest our lab has investigated so far.
Building Community Through Language: Willkommen to German Club
March 23, 2026
UAF German Club connects students through language, culture, and hands-on events, creating community beyond online classes.
Advancing Arctic Knowledge: Brandon Boylan's Impact in the Classroom and Beyond
February 23, 2026
Brandon Boylan's teaching, research and Arctic leadership continue to shape students and programs at UAF.
The Weight of Water: Melina Arciniega's Research on Fairbanks' Self-Haulers
February 16, 2026
Anthropology MA student Melina Arciniega studies water insecurity and the lived experiences of Fairbanks self-haulers.
December 15, 2025
From UAF studios to Spanish galleries, Marina Gonzalez Mazo's work travels with memory, care, and craft.
Becoming an Author: How One UAF English Major Found National Recognition Through a Personal Piece
December 15, 2025
UAF English student Margaret Thomas turns a deeply personal piece into a nationally recognized publication with Scribendi.
Alumni Spotlight: Naomi Hutchquist
September 05, 2025
UAF alumna Naomi Hutchquist (BFA '19) turns art into science storytelling, bringing data to life through creativity and community.
Following the Thread: From Classroom Questions to Community Change
September 05, 2025
UAF emeritus Brian O'Donoghue turns a years-long, student-powered investigation into a new book and a community lesson in justice.
August 29, 2025
Mary Ludwig's Newberry essay invites learners to examine power in archives and foreground Indigenous perspectives.
Student Spotlight: Seamus Knight
August 20, 2025
UAF music and film student Seamus Knight composed an original piece in Denali for a pro performance through Composing in the Wilderness.
Jacob Starkey: UAMN Special Exhibit - Seasonal Glacial Mechanics and Tidewater Glacier Cycle
July 23, 2025
The University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN) will be hosting a Special Exhibit in 2026 on Tidewater Glacier Change in Alaska and Greenland. Tidewater glaciers, characterized by their interaction with the ocean, exhibit complex behaviors crucial to understanding glacial dynamics and their role in the broader Earth system. The exhibit strives to inform the public about the ongoing processes of tidewater glaciers, how these glaciers are affected by climate change, and the lasting impacts these cycles have on the surrounding ecosystem, both locally and globally. Jacob's Summer 2025 URSA project aims to enhance the educational impact of the special exhibit by developing two comprehensive exhibit panels focused on the processes governing these dynamic systems.
Pirada Anderson: Investigating the Effects of Rising Temperatures on Sporocyst Production in Snails
July 22, 2025
Pirada is a Summer 2025 Student Project Award Recipient. Under the mentorship of Dr. Don Larson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology & Wildlife and an ecophysiologist, Pirada's project examines the effects of rising temperatures on Trichobilharzia alaskensis, a parasite that causes swimmer's itch. The T.alaskensis parasite is a bird schistosome whose life cycle involves both snails and a ducks (Gordy et al., 2018). Parasite eggs are released from duck feces into freshwater, hatching into miracidia. The miracidia then infects a snail. The parasite reproduces asexually in the snail as a sporocyst, producing cercariae. The cercariae actively seek a duck to penetrate. The cercariae mature and produce eggs via sexual reproduction. The duck then defecates the eggs, and the cycle repeats (Soldánová et al., 2013). Cercariae can mistake a human for a duck and penetrate human skin. The cercariae die in the skin and trigger an allergic reaction. Reactions can be especially severe in children, even lasting several weeks (Źbikowska & Marszewska, 2018).
July 17, 2025
UAF Native Art Professor Da-ka-xeen Mehner reflects on art, identity, and storytelling in a powerful Sealaksa HI lecture.
Leanne Bulger: Investigating the origin of high CO2 emissions in soil cavities
July 09, 2025
Leanne is a Summer 2025 Student Project Award Recipient. When permafrost thaws it creates an irregular terrain of dips and bumps known as thermokarst. Similarly to karst landscapes, within thermokarst sometimes deep, unseen cavities form. However, unlike karst terrain, very little is known about the unique behavior and characteristics of thermokarst cavities. Under the mentorship of Dr. Go Iwahana, Associate Research Professor at the International Arctic Research Center, Leanne’s research focuses on the isotopic characteristics of air exiting a small ground cavity on the UAF North Campus and uses DNA extraction to study the microbial communities that may be present in the soil.
May 16, 2025
Daniela is a Spring 2025 Student Project Award Recipient. The Cerro del Pueblo Formation is a geological formation known for being one of the most southern dinosaur-bearing units from North America, roughly dating to the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. The formation is perhaps best known for the numerous dinosaur fossils found in this unit. Recently, my previous study on the only horned dinosaur from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Coahuilaceratops revealed that it did not actually derive from these rocks. This reduced our understanding of dinosaurs from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation, and horned dinosaurs in general. My current project aims to provide a detailed osteological description and discussion of new horned dinosaur material described for the region in over two decades. The completed work of this project throughout the semester will consist of the geological and anatomical research, writing of the article, creation of figures, visualization and elaboration of rigorous scientific illustrations and reference compilation. To-date my project has culminated in a 36 page –unformatted– manuscript with roughly eight thousand words and seventy seven references.